By Salma El-Sakka
One of NASA's premier space telescopes, the Swift Observatory, reentered Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday, ending a 22-year mission studying the universe's most powerful explosions. The U.S. Space Force confirmed the spacecraft's reentry near Indonesia after tracking its decaying orbit, accelerated by intense solar activity in recent years.
Failed Rescue Attempt
NASA had hired private company Katalyst Space to attempt an orbit-boosting rescue mission, but the firm's three-armed robotic craft encountered problems following its July launch and crashed in September. The rescue effort came less than three months before Swift's final plunge. It remains unclear how much of the 1.5-ton spacecraft survived the fiery reentry, though NASA anticipated some denser components would reach the surface.
Mission Legacy
Launched in 2004 for a planned two-year study of gamma-ray bursts and exploding stars, Swift operated 11 times longer than its original design life. The observatory detected thousands of cosmic explosions and served as a first responder, alerting other telescopes to conduct deeper follow-up observations.
Hubble Rescue Under Consideration
NASA is now gauging industry interest in a similar rescue mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, whose orbit is also being eroded by solar storms. Launched in 1990, Hubble is projected to reenter uncontrolled by the mid-2030s. The agency seeks proposals from private companies to boost Hubble's orbit, upgrade its systems, or guide a controlled reentry — or a combination — with any mission needing to launch by 2032.
Unlike the rushed Swift rescue, NASA has more time to evaluate options for Hubble, said Nicky Fox, NASA's science mission chief. "Hubble still has important science ahead of it," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement, "and we should be looking at every reasonable opportunity to keep it delivering for as long as possible."
